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Oz/K: A kernel language for component-based open programming

We suggest to use the locality concept as a general form of component, that can be used, at the same time, as a unit of modularity, of isolation, and of mobility. Specifically, we introduce in this paper Oz/K, a kernel programming language, that adds to the Oz computation model a notion of locality borrowed from the Kell calculus. We present an operational semantics for the language, and several examples to illustrate how Oz/K supports open distributed programming.

I knew I'd seen the term "kernel language", but I couldn't figure out what it meant when I read the introduction to this paper. To save other confused LtUers the quarter of an hour with Google Scholar it took me, I learned that, in my own formulation, a kernel language is a calculus that can be considered a toy programming language on its own merits, but that is intended to provide a framework for expressing many other programming languages. The paradigmatic kernel language is the lambda calculus, first put to effective use by Peter Landin in The Next 700 Programming Languages. It maybe that Burstall & Lampson (1984)'s A kernel language for abstract data types and modules is where the term was coined.